1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and apparatus for operating a contact center system, in particular in a service provider environment.
2. Discussion of the State of the Art
FIG. 1 is an illustration of conventional computer-telephony integration 15 (CTI) system. A switch 90 receives an incoming call 60. The switch passes information about the call to a CTI server 80. The information passed may include, for example, a calling line identification (CLI), sometimes known as automatic number identification (ANI), and/or a dialed number identification. Switch 90 is also provided with an interactive voice response (IVR) unit 95 which may be used to obtain additional information from the caller, for example an account number or such like. This additional information may also be passed to CTI server 80. In some implementations, various messages may be played to the caller as part of the initial call handling, for example to allow a caller to specify the type of desired action, for example to make a new booking, amend a previous booking, or some other query. Caller input 25 in response to this information can then be used subsequently in determining how to handle the call.
Switch 90 routes the call through telephone network 101 to a telephone 121 belonging to an agent 120. For example, switch 90 may route a particular incoming call 60 to agent 120B having telephone 121B. CTI server 80 may instruct switch 90 which particular agent to forward the incoming call to. In other implementations, switch 90 may make this decision through some other mechanism, such as agent availability (and notify CTI server 80 accordingly).
In addition to telephone 121, each agent 120 is also provided with a workstation 122. CTI server 80 has access to a customer relationship management (CRM) database 70. CTI server 80 can use information about a particular call provided by switch 90 to look up information relating to the caller in CRM database 70. For example, this information may represent a name and address of a party associated with a particular calling line identification, as well as any information about previous orders that this person may have made, and so on. CTI server 80 can then provide this information to workstation 122 associated with agent 120 who receives the call in order to assist the agent in handling the caller. For example if the incoming call 60 is to be routed to telephone 121B of agent 120B, then CTI server accesses information about the caller from CRM database 70 and forwards this information to corresponding workstation 122B.
If no agent is free to handle incoming call 60, switch 90 may put the caller in a queue. While the caller is in a queue, switch 90 may provide the caller with marketing messages, information about queue status, and so on. These messages may be sourced from IVR 95 or switch 90 itself.
In some circumstances, a call may be handled automatically without having to reach an agent 120. For example, a caller may ring to obtain an account balance. IVR system 95 may be able to obtain the account number from the caller, perform appropriate security checks (for example, accepting an input PIN), access one or more account balances from a server 201 via a link (not shown) between IVR 95 and computer network 102, and then provide relevant balances to the caller, for example by using text-to-speech systems well-known in the art.
Call centers having CTI such as shown in FIG. 1 have been around for many years. In many cases systems such as the one shown in FIG. 1 are internal to a particular organization. In other words, switch 90 represents a PBX and telephone network 101 represents an internal telephone network of the organization. Likewise computer network 102 represents an internal computer network (such as an intranet) of the organization.
It is also very common for organizations to outsource CTI and/or call center operations to some third party. This strategy may be adopted by very small organizations, which may for example only have one incoming telephone line, as well as by larger organizations. In such cases, referring to the architecture of FIG. 1, switch 90 may be located within a public switched telephony network (PSTN); that is, telephone network 101 may be part of a PSTN Likewise computer network 102 may be the Internet or some other public computer network.
One problem with this third party call center model concerns the provision of access for a CTI service provider to CRM databases 70 of clients (i.e. the organization for whom the hosted telephony service is being provided). For example, CTI server 80 may now have to support access to potentially multiple different CRM database formats for multiple different clients, adding significantly to the cost and complexity of CTI server 80 itself.